Last night, I sat at the computer, as I was ready to jot down some notes and fact-check every little thing each and every speaker at the Republican National Convention said. From 7 to 11 pm Eastern Standard Time, I did this. Unfortunately, I discovered not long after 7 pm that most of the rhetoric was fluff - catchy slogans and talking points to fire up the base. There were more generalities spoken than in a horoscope and it felt as if, by the end of the night, I only had a handful of statements to fact-check.
I will admit - this was the first time I've watched the Republican National Convention and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I figured there would be a lot of cheerleading, a great deal of talking Mitt Romney up and criticizing President Obama. There was definitely a great deal of criticizing the president, however, Mitt Romney didn't get a great deal of attention and I was very surprised by this.
Take the keynote speaker last night - New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie... The man spent 15 minutes only talking about himself before finally mentioning the Republican nominee for president. He uttered the name Mitt Romney only 7 times in his speech, while saying "I" 37 times. Not until the 16th minute of his speech did Christie mention Romney by name. Some are saying that it was Christie's goal to position himself as the Republican front-runner for the 2016 election and that he showcased this by almost attempting to upstage Romney. It was quite the bizarre ending to a bizarre evening.
The evening started off in such a manner as well, as House speaker John Boehner led the evening off by telling a story about people at a bar. If X did Y at a bar, what would we do? "Throw them out!" as Boehner exclaimed. The way he was talking, I seriously wonder if he had just been thrown out of a bar.
RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, then came out (not of the closet, I don't believe) and appeared to be high on speed, about to star in a rap video. Never before did I think a man by the name of Reince Priebus would make it as a gangsta rapper, until last night.
One of the more interesting speeches of the evening for me was by Ohio Governor, John Kasich. First of all, the man walked on stage while The Black Eyed Peas' "I've Got a Feeling" started playing. How did Kasich start the speech? With something like the following -
"I've got a feeling and it's not that I like The Black Eyed Peas, but that we're going to have ourselves a new president!"
Yeah, cheesier than a contemporary romantic comedy entitled, "She Likes My Cheesy Pizza," I know. No, but that's not what I found interesting about his speech. What I found interesting was that the Ohio Governor talked up the fact that his state has been rebounding nicely from the recession, yet that we need a new leader in Washington.
Keep in mind that Kasich took office in 2011. Last night, he said the following:
"...The state [Ohio] was 48th in job creation rates and had an $8 billion deficit. Today, it's ranked fourth in job creation nationally and first in the Midwest and erased the deficit without statewide tax increase. The state has since gained 122,000 jobs."
Kasich then said, "We need a new partner in Washington. This relationship is just not working. It is holding us back."
So, let me get this straight, John... You've been in office for less than two years and all due to your leadership, expertise and decision-making, have the state of Ohio improved from 48th nationally in job creation to 4th, without any aid from Obama and the federal government? Is that right? Let me butt in for a moment before giving you the chance to speak - No, that's not right.
What has played a large factor in Ohio's rebound? President Obama's auto bailout, which employed thousands in the state. Not only that, but General Motors just recently announced that it will be investing $220 million at two Ohio factories. Once again, this will all be due to John Kasich's godliness.
One other speaker who stood out to me was Romney's wife, Ann. Along with Kasich, I think she was probably the best speaker of the night and unlike Kasich, her words felt rather personal. She attempted to capture the appeal of women voters for her husband in painting him as a decent, average, everyday kind of guy. Was she able to do this? I honestly don't think so. I think she was able to paint herself as a strong and decent person, but seemed, like most other speakers last night, to spend more time on showing herself in a good light than the Republican nominee. It will be interesting to see Romney's speech Thursday night and if he'll be able to persuade independents and undecideds that he is who his wife described on Tuesday night. Having heard Mitt speak several other times, I'm thinking this will be about as likely as my grabbing a couple feathers and flying to the moon.
As I noted earlier, there wasn't a great deal for me to fact-check last night due to all the generalities that were spoken, but I was able to find a couple here and there.
For instance, Virginia Governor, Bob McDonnell, talked up Republican Governors when compared to Democratic Governors, basically saying they were superior regardless of the statistic.
If we take a closer look, McDonnell's claim doesn't hold much water. In fact, as this chart shows, the 29 states led by Republican Governors have a slightly higher unemployment rate than the 20 states led by Democratic ones - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/29/do-republican-governors-really-do-better-on-the-economy/ .
The chart also shows that the month-to-month change in nonfarm payroll is almost identical between the two party's Governors.
Lastly, if anything, it's the Democratic Governors whom have outperformed the Republican ones as far as their states' annual real personal income growth per capita.
Former Republican front-runner - Rick Santorum - reiterated the Romney claim that President Obama has ended the work requirement in welfare. As fact-checking site, Politifact.com, has pointed out (seemingly time and time again), this is not true. In fact, the site grades the claim "Pants on Fire," which is just another way of saying, "What kind of idiot would believe this?"
Politifact.com elaborates by saying the following:
"The claim is a drastic distortion of what the Obama administration said it intends to do. By granting waivers to states, HHS is seeking to make welfare-to-work efforts more successful, not end them. The waivers would apply to individually evaluated pilot programs -- HHS is not proposing a blanket, national change to welfare law. And there have been no comments by the Obama administration indicating such a dramatic shift in policy.
Santorum falsely claims that Obama has waived welfare’s work requirement entirely. The remark is inaccurate and it inflames old resentments about able-bodied adults sitting around collecting public assistance. Pants on Fire!"
The overall theme of the night I found to be quite humorous. The theme was "We did build that," playing off President Obama's taken-out-of-context quote, where he said, "You didn't build that!" Almost every speaker, in one manner or another, shouted out, "We did build that!" The crowd would then begin chanting and speaking in tongues the words, "We did build that!" along with some other gibberish.
A "star" in one of Romney's ads - New Hampshire businessman, Jack Gilchrist, spoke at the event last night.
In the ad, Gilchrist states: "My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”
After doing a little bit of research, however, it appears as if Gilchrist Metal, of which Jack is the owner, received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds. The company also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts last year worth a total of $88,600. Why, after that fact-checking, Mr. Gilchrist was still called on to speak at the convention is beyond me.
Really - the evening played out like a bad comedy. It was as if a really bad prankster told a group of people of a joke he was going to play on them, that he'd have the whole series of events videotaped and the group's response was to not realize what was transpiring and to repeat this joke over and over again, making them sound like complete idiots and making the proceedings increasingly hilarious. A majority of the speakers said, "We built that!" Signs and chants were seen and heard from the crowd, which said exactly the same phrase. That's exactly what the president was saying - "We" built that.
Perhaps the funniest bit of all is the fact that the "We Built It" Convention is being held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, of which 62% is publicly financed. If that isn't hilariously ironic, I don't know what is.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/gov-john-kasich-talks-jobs-recovery-at-republican-national-convention
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/28/758981/rnc-tuesday/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/28/rick-santorum/Santorum-Romney-claim-Obama-ending-welfare-work/
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/23/570621/romneys-you-didnt-build-that-attack-ad-stars-businessman-who-received-millions-in-government-money/
http://www.plunderbund.com/2012/08/23/kasich-rnc-speech-on-we-built-it-night-will-be-held-in-venue-62-publicly-financed/
I will admit - this was the first time I've watched the Republican National Convention and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I figured there would be a lot of cheerleading, a great deal of talking Mitt Romney up and criticizing President Obama. There was definitely a great deal of criticizing the president, however, Mitt Romney didn't get a great deal of attention and I was very surprised by this.
Take the keynote speaker last night - New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie... The man spent 15 minutes only talking about himself before finally mentioning the Republican nominee for president. He uttered the name Mitt Romney only 7 times in his speech, while saying "I" 37 times. Not until the 16th minute of his speech did Christie mention Romney by name. Some are saying that it was Christie's goal to position himself as the Republican front-runner for the 2016 election and that he showcased this by almost attempting to upstage Romney. It was quite the bizarre ending to a bizarre evening.
The evening started off in such a manner as well, as House speaker John Boehner led the evening off by telling a story about people at a bar. If X did Y at a bar, what would we do? "Throw them out!" as Boehner exclaimed. The way he was talking, I seriously wonder if he had just been thrown out of a bar.
RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, then came out (not of the closet, I don't believe) and appeared to be high on speed, about to star in a rap video. Never before did I think a man by the name of Reince Priebus would make it as a gangsta rapper, until last night.
One of the more interesting speeches of the evening for me was by Ohio Governor, John Kasich. First of all, the man walked on stage while The Black Eyed Peas' "I've Got a Feeling" started playing. How did Kasich start the speech? With something like the following -
"I've got a feeling and it's not that I like The Black Eyed Peas, but that we're going to have ourselves a new president!"
Yeah, cheesier than a contemporary romantic comedy entitled, "She Likes My Cheesy Pizza," I know. No, but that's not what I found interesting about his speech. What I found interesting was that the Ohio Governor talked up the fact that his state has been rebounding nicely from the recession, yet that we need a new leader in Washington.
Keep in mind that Kasich took office in 2011. Last night, he said the following:
"...The state [Ohio] was 48th in job creation rates and had an $8 billion deficit. Today, it's ranked fourth in job creation nationally and first in the Midwest and erased the deficit without statewide tax increase. The state has since gained 122,000 jobs."
Kasich then said, "We need a new partner in Washington. This relationship is just not working. It is holding us back."
So, let me get this straight, John... You've been in office for less than two years and all due to your leadership, expertise and decision-making, have the state of Ohio improved from 48th nationally in job creation to 4th, without any aid from Obama and the federal government? Is that right? Let me butt in for a moment before giving you the chance to speak - No, that's not right.
What has played a large factor in Ohio's rebound? President Obama's auto bailout, which employed thousands in the state. Not only that, but General Motors just recently announced that it will be investing $220 million at two Ohio factories. Once again, this will all be due to John Kasich's godliness.
One other speaker who stood out to me was Romney's wife, Ann. Along with Kasich, I think she was probably the best speaker of the night and unlike Kasich, her words felt rather personal. She attempted to capture the appeal of women voters for her husband in painting him as a decent, average, everyday kind of guy. Was she able to do this? I honestly don't think so. I think she was able to paint herself as a strong and decent person, but seemed, like most other speakers last night, to spend more time on showing herself in a good light than the Republican nominee. It will be interesting to see Romney's speech Thursday night and if he'll be able to persuade independents and undecideds that he is who his wife described on Tuesday night. Having heard Mitt speak several other times, I'm thinking this will be about as likely as my grabbing a couple feathers and flying to the moon.
As I noted earlier, there wasn't a great deal for me to fact-check last night due to all the generalities that were spoken, but I was able to find a couple here and there.
For instance, Virginia Governor, Bob McDonnell, talked up Republican Governors when compared to Democratic Governors, basically saying they were superior regardless of the statistic.
If we take a closer look, McDonnell's claim doesn't hold much water. In fact, as this chart shows, the 29 states led by Republican Governors have a slightly higher unemployment rate than the 20 states led by Democratic ones - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/29/do-republican-governors-really-do-better-on-the-economy/ .
The chart also shows that the month-to-month change in nonfarm payroll is almost identical between the two party's Governors.
Lastly, if anything, it's the Democratic Governors whom have outperformed the Republican ones as far as their states' annual real personal income growth per capita.
Former Republican front-runner - Rick Santorum - reiterated the Romney claim that President Obama has ended the work requirement in welfare. As fact-checking site, Politifact.com, has pointed out (seemingly time and time again), this is not true. In fact, the site grades the claim "Pants on Fire," which is just another way of saying, "What kind of idiot would believe this?"
Politifact.com elaborates by saying the following:
"The claim is a drastic distortion of what the Obama administration said it intends to do. By granting waivers to states, HHS is seeking to make welfare-to-work efforts more successful, not end them. The waivers would apply to individually evaluated pilot programs -- HHS is not proposing a blanket, national change to welfare law. And there have been no comments by the Obama administration indicating such a dramatic shift in policy.
Santorum falsely claims that Obama has waived welfare’s work requirement entirely. The remark is inaccurate and it inflames old resentments about able-bodied adults sitting around collecting public assistance. Pants on Fire!"
The overall theme of the night I found to be quite humorous. The theme was "We did build that," playing off President Obama's taken-out-of-context quote, where he said, "You didn't build that!" Almost every speaker, in one manner or another, shouted out, "We did build that!" The crowd would then begin chanting and speaking in tongues the words, "We did build that!" along with some other gibberish.
A "star" in one of Romney's ads - New Hampshire businessman, Jack Gilchrist, spoke at the event last night.
In the ad, Gilchrist states: "My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”
After doing a little bit of research, however, it appears as if Gilchrist Metal, of which Jack is the owner, received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds. The company also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts last year worth a total of $88,600. Why, after that fact-checking, Mr. Gilchrist was still called on to speak at the convention is beyond me.
Really - the evening played out like a bad comedy. It was as if a really bad prankster told a group of people of a joke he was going to play on them, that he'd have the whole series of events videotaped and the group's response was to not realize what was transpiring and to repeat this joke over and over again, making them sound like complete idiots and making the proceedings increasingly hilarious. A majority of the speakers said, "We built that!" Signs and chants were seen and heard from the crowd, which said exactly the same phrase. That's exactly what the president was saying - "We" built that.
Perhaps the funniest bit of all is the fact that the "We Built It" Convention is being held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, of which 62% is publicly financed. If that isn't hilariously ironic, I don't know what is.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/gov-john-kasich-talks-jobs-recovery-at-republican-national-convention
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/28/758981/rnc-tuesday/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/28/rick-santorum/Santorum-Romney-claim-Obama-ending-welfare-work/
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/23/570621/romneys-you-didnt-build-that-attack-ad-stars-businessman-who-received-millions-in-government-money/
http://www.plunderbund.com/2012/08/23/kasich-rnc-speech-on-we-built-it-night-will-be-held-in-venue-62-publicly-financed/
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